Inside Facebook guide to the Super Bowl

As the Seattle Seahawks prepare to do battle with the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl on Sunday, let’s take a look at how the teams are performing on Facebook.

According to PageData, both teams’ Facebook pages saw massive jumps in likes after earning the NFC and AFC title games, with the Broncos adding 42,585 fans the day after they defeated the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks gaining 32,770 fans after beating the San Francisco 49ers.

Between the two teams, the Broncos have been the most talked about team in the weeks leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, but the Seahawks are closing the gap. One of the biggest drivers of discussion hasn’t been controversial Seahawks defensive back Richard Sherman or Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, but rather the largest city of Nebraska.

Here’s a look at key Facebook stats for the official pages of both teams, courtesy of PageData:

The Broncos have more fans overall, but the Seahawks are quickly gaining new fans. The People Talking About This metric is fairly close, as roughly 3,000 more people are talking about the Broncos on Facebook than the Seahawks.

The Broncos have also been the most buzzed about team on Facebook, at least according to the team page’s PTAT metric.

While the Broncos were the most-talked about team (in comparison with the Seahawks) for most of the playoffs, Seattle’s fanbase shot back up in the days between the 2nd round of the playoffs and the NFC Championship game.

However, on Jan. 15, the Broncos shared a story where star quarterback Peyton Manning jokingly explained what he means when he shouts “Omaha” before several plays. The post has been shared more than 6,500 times, was liked by 33,301 people and generated more than 1,300 comments, giving the Broncos a nice boost in PTAT.

While the Broncos have been more popular on Facebook, Instagram data from Facebook shows that the #Seahawks hashtag has been used nearly 700,000 times, the #Broncos hashtag roughly 153,000 times. The hashtag #SuperBowl has been used a little more than 305,000 times this week.